Shia Khan conversions (and big news)

Garafraxian Black Guards
15 mm

The quasi-humanoid, photosynthetic Garafraxians (colloquially called "Chloros") use heavy armour to protect their fragile bodies during combat.  Their long eye stalks give them excellent depth perception and peripheral vision however, so they generally extend them out of their suits except when in immediate danger.  The suits are lined with red-LED arrays to maintain their metabolism far away from their home star's nourishing rays.

We have another baby on the way... arriving in only a few weeks now, whoa! So I expect that I'll be posting pretty sporadically for a while.  But just like last time, I'll be back, so stay tuned :)

I did want to squeeze in at least one more fun project before our due date, however.  I wasn't sure what to do with these cool Shia Khan Pioneers when I ordered them, but once I got a good look at them I knew I couldn't not convert them into something weirder.

As Chloro shock troops poured in from the docking ring, Fett found himself
in the uncomfortable position of fleeing away from his ride off the station.

Kind of a goofy B-movie look here, but I like it.  All I really did was stick in wires with drops of epoxy on the ends, and sculpt the tentacle/pincer things over their human hands.  Well within my constraints of talent, fortunately.

The Ion Age February Mini

Interstellar Envoy
15 mm

The Zin Envoy was Ion Age's limited edition mini from this February.  I'm surprised at how fast I got this mini done... by my standards at least.  Anyway it's a great figure, alas now unavailable but if you have one, have a go at it.  I really tried to glam him up, and so it was a lot of fun to paint.

The Ambassador has a stroke of luck - a Very Strange Alien appears just
as he needs to send an urgent encrypted message to the homeworld.

The Ion Age March Mini

Female Muster Officer
15 mm

"Your papers, please."

As I mentioned in my last post, Gavin at Ion Age was nice enough to comp me this month's limited edition mini when he re-sent my order.  So I figured I'd paint it up first.  I like the pose here, as you can see it reminds me of a border guard or sentry though it could be a combat hand signal too. The sentry box is from Germy.co.uk, home of a number of nice paper buildings.

As a side note, I noticed Ion Age minis are visibly larger than some other 15 mm minis I have; this one is a mm or two taller than my Khurasan SEAL team.  Probably fine to use together, though.

Thanks, Ion Age!

I ordered some Ion Age stuff at the beginning of February... it never showed up :(  Fell off the boat, I guess.  But Gavin shipped it again, and threw in March's limited edition miniature too:

I'm going to try and paint one of these up for the blog ASAP, they're pretty nice figures.

Among other fun things, I ordered a couple of "Maligs", sort of undisciplined auxilaries from the Shia Khan faction.  I love them!  They'd make GREAT not-Space-Orks:

"More dakka!"

Ain't no party like a boarding party

... 'cause a boarding party don't stop until all hostiles on the target vessel are neutralized or captured.

Cultural Collective marines and breaching drone
15 mm

"Maintain spacing!  Watch your angles!  Advance on my mark."

While life as a citizen of the Cultural Collective is generally one of fulfilling work and hedonistic leisure in a low-scarcity economy, utopia is not without consequence.  In addition to its overt and covert diplomatic interaction with other galactic powers, the CC is constantly engaged in a variety of low-level military endeavours against renegades, pirates, rebellious elements, and adjacent domains with whom it is not officially at war.
 

No citizen is compelled to serve in the CC's armed forces.  Instead, service simply appeals to a certain subset of the population who enjoy the the combination of action, violence, and relatively low personal risk due to advanced weapons and armour.  Periodic excesses may occur, but the average CC resident considers these a small price to pay for freedom and security, if they are aware of them at all.
 

I decided to keep a cool blue "authentically military" look for these guys, with only the white helmets to offset it and tie them in with the robot.  The yellow markings* on the bases (colour printed and slightly weathered with paint) help with both colour contrast and visual unity.

* The square yellow signs are tiny versions of "Autonomous Device" and "Self-Replicating System" from this interesting collection of future warning signs - good eye-candy for any industrial or military sci-fi scenery :)

Diecast Drive-by

I just made a few good finds in the grocery store while on an emergency cat food run.  Inspired by Spacejacker's amazing Hot Wheels repaints, I thought they might work as 15mm scale vehicles.  First, the "International MXT", in desert drab:

Wow!  Probably a bit off-scale, but it looks perfect next to some average minis.  This is a real military truck, but not so well-known you can't field it as a fictional one.  Detail is a bit soft, but I don't know if that's from the casting or the kid-proof paint layer.  Apparently even this durable paint can be stripped with solvents or oven cleaner, but the metal body has to be separated from the plastic frame and wheels.

Next up we have this tracked dump truck thingy.  Some greasy sci-fi potential here, for sure.  The cab is not at all big enough to be 1:100/15mm, but I still feel like something could be done with it, or at least the track portion could be used as the basis for a kit bash:

There are probably a bunch more interesting things available along these lines; I've been keeping an eye out for that cool fire engine Spacejacker used, but no luck so far...

Colour Commentary?

So I'm working on these GOTA troops from Khurasan, and while I'm generally happy with the colours I've picked and how they look on their bases, I am stuck on one thing.
 

My robot!  I don't want it to be exactly the same scheme as the troopers, and just blend in.  But I don't want to do it in a wildly contrasting or too-colourful style either because I'm trying to make them look realistically military and of the same faction.

Any suggestions, oh readers?

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Also, my Planet Tubby entry in the Titanium Dropship painting contest has finally been posted on Dropship Horizon, along with a lot of other very, very nice entries.  Check em out, if you haven't already!